Imperial Gate
The Kaisertor is part of the former city fortifications of Lübeck .
To protect the new mill dam and the built-in vital watermills , the city built two defense towers around 1300 , the Buten and the Kaiserturm. The Butenturm ( buten "outside") was demolished at the end of the 16th century and replaced by a round gun turret , the "Runden Zwinger" or "Fischerturm". The imperial tower - allegedly so named after its builder - flanked protective walls . The passers-by entered a kennel through a gate tunnel . A bridge led from him over the moat into the foreland. In contrast to the mill gates, this gate exit was rarely used, so the council had it walled up around 1500. This did not happen, as a legend wants to make believable, because Emperor Charles IV stepped through the gate in 1375 and no one was supposed to step through after him.
The real reason was a dispute between the council and the canons , reports the chronicler Hans Regkmann around 1540. The canons wanted to forbid the route over the Mühlendamm or levy customs on passing. Despite an objection from the Senate, the cathedral chapter insisted on his request, walled up the gate and demolished the bridge.
When the fortifications were strengthened in the 17th century, the wall builder laid a protruding bastion, the "Emperor Bastion", in front of the tower. In the removed casemates was powder stored. The tower itself, which had become useless as a defense against modern artillery, was demolished except for a stump that towered over the wall four meters. An upper floor was added to it in the 19th century. The navigation school, which later became the Lübeck seafaring school , moved in here in 1826 . When the "Kaiser Bastion" was cut through during the construction of the Elbe-Lübeck Canal in 1897 and the ruins of the Zwinger were uncovered, the walled-up gate was also opened and it was made through to Wallstrasse. On August 26, 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II walked through the Kaisertor to open shipping on the Elbe-Lübeck Canal on board the Lubeca on the journey to the city harbor.
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 51 '28.8 " N , 10 ° 41' 16.8" E